Mister Tee wrote:I saw Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears 40 years ago, and have very little memory of it, beyond the fact that it seemed something of a soap opera -- like a Russian variation on The Best of Everything -- and wasn't close in quality to the more celebrated films it defeated. (Much like Black and White in Color doesn't approach the quality of Seven Beauties.)
IMDb's Trivia says that he wasn't allowed to attend to the Oscars to accept the Foreign Film award because Soviet authorities were suspicious of his political beliefs. Sad that he didn't get to experience his one career highlight. I'm pretty sure Bonardchuk wasn't at the ceremony where
War and Peace won, and I believe the Soviet authorities came on the plane from Los Angeles as soon as it landed and took the Oscar, so I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to keep it, as some winners of the Foreign/International award do. (I know Uri mentioned Moshe Mizrahi had the Oscar for
Madame Rosa in his Tel Aviv apartment, and I remember an article mentioning that Pawel Pawlikowski had the Oscar for
Ida at his home in Warsaw.)
Tee, was
Seven Beauties considered the frontrunner in 76? I know those races weren't analyzed to the degree then that they are now. I remember one Oscar book I read once mentioned
Cousin, Cousine as the frontrunner. I know it also had other nominations, and it's actually not hard to see today, although no one ever talks about it, and Criterion has had the rights forever but has never made an effort to release it, presumably because they know there's little interest. I seem to remember Damien was a fan though. Interesting to note, that despite making a few Hollywood movies,
Black and White in Color is one of those Foreign Film winners that no one ever watches or talks about, like Gavin Hood's
Tsotsi (awful movie) or Juan Jose Campanella's
The Secret in Their Eyes (he directs a ton of American TV, although he hasn't made any American films).
Also interesting to note, looking through the category, just what a drag that category was from around 1980 through 2010. A lot of years, you're lucky if the winner is something that anyone has heard of, and in many of those years, if you've heard of the winner, the other four movies are things that no one has thought of since they were nominated: Take a look at the list of movies that
All About My Mother beat. Or for truly obscure lineups, look at the years films called
Kolya and
Character won. The 2010's have really been a breath of fresh air in this category. (I know some of this is due to recency, and changes in the ways films are distributed, and the 2010's do have plenty of instantly-forgotten nominees--
Theeb,
Tangerines,
Kon-Tiki--but if you look at the filmmakers having films nominated this decade compared to the past three, this decade blows them away.)